


Staying Afloat

by HannaVictoria



Series: For What it's Worth [1]
Category: inFAMOUS (Video Games), inFAMOUS: Second Son
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 16:06:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5423384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannaVictoria/pseuds/HannaVictoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reggie was entirely certain "I'm so proud of you" would be his final words, but no. Now big brother rushes in the save the day? Because trying to protect Del has worked so well so far. Reggie makes the hard choice and has faith in his brother and his friends and heads home. Things get very weird and surreal on the way in normal and not so normal ways. But then what fun would it be if his escape from a still semi-occupied Seattle was just another Tuesday?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Staying Afloat

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to take a real look at the implications of super powers on society. Reggie will be playing the part of our lovable everyman as per usual. Mostly though it's a character piece. I love Reggie he just thanklessly stands by the people who matter to him. He will die for them in a heartbeat, and live for them for a lifetime.

He was so sure that “I’m so proud of you.” Would be the last words he ever said, but hear he was listening to a pulse monitor. God he hated hospitals reminded him too much of when his parents died and really just in general they were not fun places to be so far as he was concerned. A nurse noticed him before Reggie could even get his bearings “Are you alright sir?” the man asked checking his eyes and various nurse things. “Can you tell me your name?” ‘Can, yes. Should, no.’ Nothing against the guy, but Augustine had a history of playing ‘I have your family member’ “Water?” he stalled. Even if he wasn’t in a part of the city the DUPs still controlled they could still storm in and cause all forms of havoc if they knew he was here. The nurse looked at him expectedly “John Red-feather.” It was complete bull, but he knew from experience that if you looked Native American most wouldn’t say a thing when you gave them a nature related adjective-noun last name unless they knew for a fact you were full of it. He’d had his rebellious phase too it just ended before he was old enough to vote.  
‘Delsin. I hope he’s alright.’ His brother almost certainly thought him dead and thus was likely not alright. “Um, Mr. Red-feather?” ‘Oh, right that’s me.’ The nurse luckily chalked his slow reaction up to being a little out of it from his ordeal “Would you like me to pour this for you?” he meant the water currently on the bed table. “No it’s fine. Uh, could I get out of here? I kind of don’t have insurance.” It was a chance, but now when he snuck out or if he were caught trying they’d think it was that and not avoiding the DUPs. He actually had pretty a good health plan thanks to the department. “Yes well the doctor will have to look you over first.” He said before finally leaving Reggie alone. ‘Okay. I have no clothes. I apparently lost my wallet at some point. So penniless and in a paper _backless_ dress I need to MacGyver my way out of here and find Delsin.’ Sat up throwing his legs over the side of the bed he was a little startled “I need to drown more often if this was what it feels like when I’m done.” He actually did need a drink of water, but when he reached out he got a nasty shock instead. He reached for the water and the water reached back. ‘Oh, you have got to be kidding me!’ but no there it was, water swirling around his hand like it had a mind of it own. He managed in a rather admirable less than a minute to make it ‘go away’ before checking over his shoulder that yes by some miracle all the blinds between him and his audience in the hall were for some reason closed and even then he’d by the grace of god been facing away from there anyway.  
Reggie took a deep breathe ‘Okay confirm. Then freak once your out of here.’ If by some grand cosmic joke this was in fact happening he _really_ didn’t want to be here even more than before. He focused thinking on the few times he and Delsin had been able to sit down in all the chaos and really talk about what had happened. He focused inward and somehow he knew, he could feel the water he’d somehow absorbed. ‘Wait. That’s it!’ he looked around the room and thankfully yes there was a drain off to one corner of the room. He steeled himself, but he still wasn’t even remotely ready for this. It was one thing to feel the water, but ‘if Delsin can do it with vents.’ it was another thing entirely to be the water. “There is a God and he loves me.” Setting a side his misgivings as he slowly accepted yes he had ‘powers’ he’d somehow landed in a basement laundry room. ‘Jackpot!’ not only was there something clean and non-conspicuous there was even some loose change. It wasn’t even ten dollars, but it was so much more than Reggie could have possibly hoped for.  
Reggie slipped out the back and on to the streets and put up the hood on his ill-gotten outfit. “You just can’t trust the news anymore!” a teenage girl said “Delsin some kind of spree killer? As if!” her friend agreed “Argh! I wanna have his babies so bad!” Reggie grimaced ‘I did not need to hear that.’ Not the first or the twenty-fifth time he had. An older gentleman chuckled “Now, try not to judge them too harshly. The law says they have to say what the DUP tells them to.” Both girls looked horrified “Who’s bright idea was that?!” one shouted. The other girl groaned, “That is so unconstitutional! How on earth did they get away with that?” Reggie stepped into the conversation “You girls were about eleven at most when the provisions for the DUP passed right?” the rest of the group seemed shocked and maybe a little frightened ‘Safe to assume I’m in an area that’s at least mostly uncontrolled if strangers are having this kind of conversation out on the street in the first place.’ “What’s it to you?” the more vocal of the two fan-girls insisted “He means scared folks tend to put way to much stock in whatever seems might keep them safest when for instance…” she gestured to the television in the shop window playing the propagandized broadcast. “But that isn’t real!” the girl argued. Reggie laughed, “Call them Bioterrorists call them Conduits, that’s probably more power than people were ever really meant to have. It’s not hard to see how damage could be done. Obviously the DUPs have to go but what happens when a guy who can blow things up with playdough decides to knock over some banks?” the girls scowled and started planning a counter-offensive.  
“So are you lot going to block the door or are you coming in. We’re having an ‘It’s almost over’ Sale. Which seems to be turning into a public debate.” ‘Over?’ Curious he and the others from the sidewalk came into the electronics store. “Yeah right “in support of the DUP” yeah that ugly riot just wants to give them a big hug!” one man shouted at the screen the next nearest calling back “I’m not sure who’s worse! The damn DUPs or these idiots talking like the “Demon of Empire” is just some poor misunderstood soul!” “They call him the “Saint of New Marais” down South.” Said the more level-headed fan-girl. Both men sneered. Cole MacGrath was still a controversial subject. “One kid tagging buildings did all this?” Reggie asked to quiet for anyone to hear. Anyone but the shop owner “How many people act so selflessly these days? Makes you kind of warm and fuzzy that kid disproving “power corrupts” so thoroughly.” He didn’t really have response for that. The argument continued around him. He felt a little lost like. These were the kinds of debates he’d been having with his brother since they’d started for Seattle, but that was in private a Conduit punk arguing ‘crazy’ ideas with his cop brother. Had that really only been a week ago? Maybe even less? ‘When did the world go and change on us little brother’ he made to leave “Your aren’t thinking of joining that mess are you.” The old man from outside gestured to the unfolding riot on the television. “No, nothing like that.” He thought for a moment “Everything’s changed so much and I think I should go check on my family, is all.” The man smiled “Very well. You may be right. However if you run into any trouble” he pulled out a card “give me a call.” Reggie took it ‘Wainwright  & Sound’ with the name ‘Stanley Wainwright’ printed smaller toward the bottom. He smiled back “Thanks. I may take you up on that.” He had no doubt that there’d be need of lawyers in the future. ‘Conduit Rights that’s gonna be a real party.’ He thought ruefully.  
He spent a bit of time standing out on one of the docks in the marina huddled among a group of ‘refugees’. Somehow or another he’d caught wind of a bunch of ‘Suspected Bioterrorists’ Delsin had previously freed trying to sneak out by boat under the confusion of the DUP mid-collapse. Seemed to Reggie a great excuse to get home. He couldn’t help Delsin he knew that now. This was no place for a small town sheriff and as for the water thing? He had no idea what he was capable of, but he knew he wasn’t going to figure it out before Del had his big showdown. ‘He’s got Fetch and Eugene. He’ll be fine.’ It occurred to Reggie that he probably had some as of yet unknown ability to move on or through water likely at speed, but he also knew he wasn’t going to figure it out today. “Stupid machines. I am not a goddamn bioterrorist-conduit whatever.” was the general mood of the jittery crowd. Odds are he wasn’t the only Conduit on getting on the boat, but no one dared say aloud if they were.  
Hell, Reggie could barely say to himself ‘ _This_ is my mid-life crisis? I’m not even thirty yet.’ All joking aside sitting in that hold a morbid part of himself couldn’t help but wonder. ‘What if Delsin and I had come into our powers when we were younger?’ You heard about it a lot. Most of the horror stories it was a teenager coming into there abilities going ballistic and leaving havoc in their wake. How much more often they came in with a smaller bang? Something where they could hide it, for a time at least? ‘How many years did Fetch and Brent live on the streets?’ Obviously you could come into it older; Hank definitely hadn’t been a teenager. ‘I used to have nightmares growing up. It’d be me, or Delsin… you know I don’t think it was ever both.’ He laughed. “Quiet down there!” an angry crewman whispered, “You aren’t supposed to be here remember?” Turns out you really can’t trust Coyotes ‘Big surprise.’ A few miles from their destination the crew stopped the boat and began trying to extort their passengers for what little they had left. They had guns and Reggie couldn’t help but sigh wearily “Um, sir?” he moved to the front towards the gun-toting sailors “Don’t you think it’s maybe a bad idea to try and extort a bunch of suspected conduits with guns? You could mow us all down sure, but then the real conduits will just get up? And be more than a little upset?” The man who’d told him to pipe down laughed “Please! If any of you were real you wouldn’t be running now would you?”  
He gave the crew a skeptical look then raised his arm high for all to see before summoning up what water he had stored and prepared to bluff his way out “Now you can pick a fight with a water conduit on a boat or you can take us to shore; the one opposite Seattle. No cops, no feds, no games, we all just go merrily on our separate ways.” The rest of the passengers jointly took an audible step back, but the crew was quick to comply with Reggie’s demand. “So~” he clapped his hands together awkwardly “Am I really the only one on the boat?”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I gave Reggie superpowers I'm not sorry! Their is a small part of the fandom that tinfoil-hat-ed the idea that Reggie totally lived because he was somehow a water conduit. Which according to the secondary material is a thing if I recall? Anyway I read a fic on this site called Aqua Anima. My brain immediately latched on to the instance where Reggie and Delsin are reunited after his powers first awaken and it is the only time Delsin ever expresses negativity let alone such despair about being a conduit and just wow! their is an immediate sequel that should be up nigh immediately.
> 
> Aqua Anima: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4464209/chapters/10144091


End file.
